Unguity
Unguentum is the Latin name for an ointment , anointing oil or a balm .
Manufacturing
Numerous recipes for the production of ointments have been handed down from antiquity and the Middle Ages . The base is often olive oil , but other oils such as behenut or almond oil were also used. Fragrances as well as preservatives and coloring agents could be added to these.
use
The possible uses for anointing oils are complex; they could be used both for cosmetic purposes in personal hygiene and as a remedy for diseases. But ointments were also given on other occasions, as Petron describes in the satirical depiction of Trimalchio's feast ( Satyricon 60), how bottles with fragrant essences are lowered from the ceiling during a meal.
Finds
In the context of archaeological finds, only the ointment containers, such as unguentaries or aryballoi , are almost always preserved. Remnants of the contents are relatively rare, they have changed a lot visually and chemically. Analyzes of such residual contents show multiple similarities with vegetable oil.
literature
- Emmerich Paszthory: Ointments, make-up and perfumes in antiquity ( Zabern's illustrated books on archeology ; Vol. 4). Verlag von Zabern, Mainz 1992, ISBN 3-8053-1417-5 .
- Isabelle Bardiès-Fronty et al. (Ed.): Le Bain et le Miroir. Soins du corps et cosmétiques de l'antiquité à la Renaissance . Gallimard, Paris 2009, ISBN 978-2-07-012454-1 (also catalog of the exhibition of the same name in the Musée des Thermes et de l'Hôtel de Cluny , Paris, May 20 to September 21, 2009).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Günter Brachvogel: The 'Münchner Salbenbuch'. A late medieval recipe collection from the end of the 15th century. Mathematical and scientific dissertation, Munich 1973